Schools' chief responds to budget critics

Posted: Thursday, March 17, 2005 1:00 am | Updated: 11:40 am, Wed Nov 25, 2009. By Carl Hamilton
Cecil County Schools Superintendent Carl Roberts is aware of this common criticism: The system spends too much money on headquarters administrators and not enough on teachers, classroom materials and support staff.
And he takes exception to it.
"The priority is — and has always been — the classroom,” Roberts commented.
More than 80 percent of the $146.5 million budget that public school officials here are proposing for academic year 2005-2006 will be spent on educating students, Robert said.
And the percentage of money earmarked for teaching in this budget request is similar to the proportions in past budgets, he added.
"Our main function is to educate students, and you'll see that 81.4 percent of this budget is associated with learning which, historically, is common,” he said.
The Cecil County Board of Education on Monday unanimously approved the proposed $146.5 million budget, which is 9 percent higher than the current $134 million budget.
As the next step in the budget process, sometime in May, the Cecil County Board of Commissioners will vote on how much funding the county will provide the school system.
Roberts noted that only $4.3 million of the proposed Fiscal Year 2006 (July 1 to June 30, 2006) budget would be spent on administration that is unrelated to day-to-day school activities, including teaching and supplies.
That translates to 3 percent of the proposed $146.5 million budget.
(Also unrelated to the classroom, $15 million (10 percent) would be earmarked for maintenance and operations, and $7.8 million would be spent on transportation.)
More than $118 million — or 81.4 percent of the entire proposed budget — would be spent on educating students, supervising teachers on curriculum and overseeing teachers and pupils on a day-to-day basis.
The lion's share — $101.6 million — would be spent on "direct instruction,” according to line items on the budget request. That's 69.4 percent of the proposed budget.
"Direct instruction includes teachers' salaries, textbooks, supplies, materials, technology,” Roberts said. "It's anything directly related to the classroom and instruction."
Of that $101.6 million, $56.4 million would be spent on teachers salaries. Currently, $52.6 million is spent on teachers, who had negotiated a pay increase for academic year 2005-2006.
The proposed budget also calls for $3.1 million for "instruction support," which includes salaries for guidance counselors, media specialists and school nurses and the cost of their materials.
"They're very involved in the day-to-day lives of the students,” Roberts said. "They support the learning process in school, but they're not directly involved in the classroom."
About $5 million would be spent on the Division of Education Services, which includes the salaries of content coordinators in the administration building.
Each assigned to a subject, such as reading and math, content coordinators develop and implement the curriculums used by teachers.
"They offer day-to-day support of instruction,” Roberts said.
The school system also would spend $9.4 million on the Office of Principal, which covers salaries for principals and vice principals and their office supplies and equipment.cahamilton@cecilwhig.com